Drilling for Wind
“It’s like Jed Clampett shooting his gun and hitting oil. That’s what the big wind farms in north Texas are doing. They chose to build on that land because the wind is the best in the country, just like Jed’s land was located where oil bubbled up to the surface. It’s the low hanging fruit,” said Jim Fugitte, President of Wind Energy Corp., a Kentucky based company that is developing a different kind of wind energy product. “There aren’t many areas like that. We have to learn to produce wind energy in areas that have less than ideal wind conditions. That’s where our product comes in.”
The big wind turbines (propellers to you and me) need strong prevailing winds. Prevailing winds have two things: very constant wind speed and very constant wind direction. Changes in wind speed or direction make a location poor for big wind farms. Fugitte’s wind energy product is designed to harness the wind no matter the direction. Shifting wind directions don’t bother it. It also needs only 10 M.P.H. winds to begin producing electricity. “That’s why we’re a good solution for coastal areas,” Fugitte said. “They generally have strong winds, but not usually prevailing winds, because the direction and speed change. A marina would be a perfect location for our turbine.”
Fugitte’s turbine looks and operates differently from the big propellers we see populating the large wind farms. His product doesn’t use propellers, but rather a cylinder that looks like an auger. It is technically referred to as a sail. But it doesn’t look like any sail you’ve ever run up a mainmast. “The large windmills have propellers mounted on a horizontal axis around which the propeller turns. Our design has a vertical axis around which the sail rotates,” Fugitte said. “Our sail uses the same principle as a boat’s sail; it’s a drag system, which any sailor will understand. Our turbine catches the wind like a sail. A propeller is a lift system, like an airplane wing.”
Looks aren’t the only thing that separate Wind Energy’s vertical axis turbine from the big propeller turbines. The big wind farms pump their electricity to a regional power grid, where it is sold to utility companies. Wind Energy Corp. is providing an “off grid” solution . . . the power each turbine creates goes directly to the end user’s power system, never entering the electric power grid. It is a stand-alone power generator. The electricity it produces travels by wire directly to the client’s power control panel, and then is used just like power from the electric company.
The Wind Energy turbine is designed for commercial applications. A prototype, dubbed “Windy 2”, is currently undergoing beta testing at Texas based grocer H-E-B’s distribution center in Weslaco, Texas. Two 195 foot-tall meteorological towers have been up since March, testing wind speed and direction. Windy 2 was installed atop a 100 foot tower in mid-August, and will be tested for several months to measure output and to see what tweaking may be necessary. “We’ve done lots of design and wind-tunnel testing, now we’re field testing it,” Fugitte said.
Shelley J. Parks, from H-E-B’s Public Affairs department, said the grocery chain is “very excited” about Windy 2. “This is a new technology. As far as we know, this research and development project is the first of its kind. There hasn’t been any in-depth research on wind in South Texas. Airports record some basic information, but our tests provide much more data.” H-E-B’s goal, according to Parks, is to determine if a roof mounted system can provide partial power to its buildings, reducing electric costs and lowering its carbon footprint. It is also hoped that the turbine can produce emergency power during power outages. “H-E-B has an Environmental department to try to develop natural resources. Our stores in Austin get some of their power from the larger wind farms in West Texas, and our McCreeless Market location in San Antonio gets 30% of its electricity from wind power,” Parks said. “We are very interested in wind energy and look forward to Windy 2’s results.”
The field-testing of Wind Energy’s turbine is the last stage of its development. According to Fugitte, there are three ways to improve any particular turbine. “First, you can improve the design of the sail, to catch more wind. Second, you can improve the electronics to generate more electricity with every turn of the turbine, and third, you can explore for wind. At the Weslaco location, we are exploring for wind. The meteorological towers will help us determine the best location and height for this turbine. This is referred to as ‘micrositing’. Wind behaves differently at different sites. Winds 30 feet up in Gulfport, Mississippi may behave very differently from 30 feet up in Weslaco. We are ‘micrositing’ for this turbine, trying to find the best location at this particular site.”
The sail for Wind Energy’s system is made up of advanced composite materials, very similar to those used on Boeing’s Dreamliner aircraft, and are very light yet strong. The turbine is 19 feet tall and 13 feet wide, but weighs less than 200 lbs. Its peak capacity is 25kW to 50kW.
The future of vertical axis wind turbines seems pretty bright. Fugitte foresees uses by factories and businesses to replace or reduce reliance on grid supplied electricity. He also sees neighborhoods or communities putting up their own towers to supply homes with emission-free electricity. And why shouldn’t we listen to him. Just like Mr. Drysdale knew a good thing when he saw Jed Clampett and his oil, Mr. Fugitte should know a good thing when he sees it; he’s a retired banker.
